Near Field Communication, or NFC, isn’t new to the tech scene – companies have been playing up the potential for NFC to revolutionize mobile payments for some time now. But it’s the use of the technology in other ways, like part of the video game experience, which has the potential to incite fresh buzz around the low-power, close range wireless radio technology. NFC promises a whole new user experience, all with a simple tap.

The Wii U incorporates a slew of great technology, including the GamePad, Nintendo’s new controller with a 6.2 inch touchscreen. Broadcom is playing a pivotal role in the Wii U not only by enabling its wireless connectivity but also by helping the Wii U to be the first system to incorporate NFC. Coupled with dramatically enhanced dual-band WiFi technology and high-performance Bluetooth connectivity, Nintendo’s Wii U is creating an immersive gaming experience that’s unique to each user.

Nintendo has yet to reveal its specific plans for NFC, but the possibilities are virtually endless. Broadcom’s long-standing partnership with Nintendo will transform how games are played and how players interact, and the incorporation of NFC has the potential to redefine the electronics landscape in gamers’ living rooms. Game on!

Editor’s Note: Broadcom experts often weigh in on popular topics on industry sites around the Web. Below is a reprint of a story that appeared in RCR Wireless in which Lewis Brewster, Vice President and General Manager of Wireless Connectivity at Broadcom, talks about the top 5 wireless technologies that will influence life in 2015 and beyond.

With the “Internet of Things” reaching into every aspect of modern life, analysts predict the number of connected devices to reach around 5 billion by the end of this year – up 30% from 2014. By the end of the decade, that number is expected to reach nearly 40 billion, far exceeding the number of people on the planet.

At the heart of the IoT are the connectivity technologies that make it possible. Let’s take a closer look at the top five emerging connectivity technologies to watch in 2015 and beyond.

Surf and stream with 802.11ac and 802.11ad Wi-Fi

At the top of the list is the combined surf-and-stream capabilities enabled by two emerging wireless technologies – 802.11ac in the 5 GHz band and 802.11ad in the 60 GHz band.

With consumers streaming more and more content, being able to connect over a robust wireless connection is critical. 802.11ac Wi-Fi brings a number of new features to connectivity that weren’t possible just two years ago. It allows media streaming from a handset to a digital television at data rates comparable to Ethernet, high-speed data and media synchronization, and significantly improves the Wi-Fi user experience by reducing signal fading and lost connections while increasing range.

Add 2×2 multiple-input/multiple-output transmission capabilities to the mix and 802.11ac Wi-Fi performance becomes even more powerful. 2×2 MIMO can transmit or receive two data streams concurrently over two antennas, doubling throughput and enabling much faster download times. This puts smartphone performance on equal footing with the connectivity technology available in laptops and tablets, something that until now has not been possible.

For in-room communication 802.11ad shines. The true magic of 802.11ad is the wide available bandwidth of 60 GHz that allows data rates of up to 7 gigabits per second. A range of up to 12 feet makes 802.11ad Wi-Fi perfect for in-room, point-to-point applications such as wireless connectivity between a mobile device and the TV. Tri-band solutions incorporating 802.11ac and 802.11ad will deliver a seamless experience using whatever works best for a particular distance and application, allowing consumers to surf and stream at lightning fast speeds.

Find and navigate with GNSS and sensor hub technologies

Wearable devices, such as the fitness trackers, bands and watches – are only as useful as the data they collect. The accuracy of the data, such as miles run or calories burned is crucial. Relying on GPS or a GNSS receiver alone to calculate a route or speed while running can be wildly inaccurate.

This year will see the convergence of technologies working together to more accurately track and manage data. By combining sensor hub, GNSS, Bluetooth Smart and Wi-Fi technologies, today’s wearable devices can deliver more accurate results while preserving battery life.

Data from the combined technologies can recognize when a runner is outdoors versus inside on a treadmill and dynamically manage these technologies to save battery life and optimize the user experience.

Charge and go with resonant wireless charging

When we went wireless for data, we only got half way to “cutting the cord.” The average U.S. household still connects via a rat’s nest of cables to charge up to 10 devices at any one time. Wireless power, which allows users to charge electronic devices without the use of a cable, promises to finally cut the cord for good. While wireless power technology has been around for some time, its evolution from first-generation inductive technology to second-generation resonant technology is now promising to take it mainstream with its capability to charge multiple devices at the same time.

Resonant wireless technology features a simple transmitter antenna design for multiple receiver support, a comprehensive wireless power control system using Bluetooth Smart communication, and has the ability to transfer power through non-metallic surfaces. This means that even the smallest of devices, such as headsets and wearables, can communicate clearly and intelligently with the charging surface.

Imagine what that capability will mean for retailers and consumers. Wireless charging stations will start popping up everywhere from home furnishings to coffee shops, airports, restaurants and movie theaters, providing consumers with a true charge-and-go experience.

Pay and pair with NFC

Near-field communications technology, which allows two devices to pair or share data simply by touching them together – has already made an impact in the world of mobile payments. NFC is quickly gaining traction in other consumer applications, providing a more personalized experience with the IoT, especially for home automation and the connected car.

A driving force behind the IoT is the idea of connecting all the devices in a room into a single ecosystem. NFC’s tap-to-connect feature simplifies the set-up process between a smartphone and a variety of other devices including the TV, portable speaker or the car, without a complicated set up process.

According to recent analyst reports, a vast majority of mobile devices are incorporating NFC technology as a de facto standard, as consumers become increasingly aware of the benefits of mobile payments and NFC wireless readers proliferate in businesses around the world.

Control and monitor with Wave 2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Smart

Together, 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Smart are behind an explosion of control and monitoring applications within the context of the IoT, enabling improvements in everything from industrial automation to home energy and medicine.

802.11ac Wave 2 technology has raised the bar on Wi-Fi performance, allowing multiple Wi-Fi devices to connect simultaneously. This allows the router or gateway to support substantially more devices at the same time, meeting varied data and video needs seamlessly. Meanwhile, ultra-low-power Bluetooth Smart-enabled devices connect to the Internet via those same gateways for highly secure data connectivity to the cloud.

That data will be analyzed and useful, actionable intelligence will be extracted to make the monitored device or activity better over time. The potential of this constant, data-based improvement over time can hardly yet be imagined.

The wireless standard is extending its reach to open the door to new user experiences, even in areas such as underground subway stations or crowded stadiums where the connection might otherwise be sporadic.

Through Wi-Fi Direct®, with or without an Internet connection, users can still connect to each other to engage in a number of activities. For example, a gamer on a crowded underground subway car might play against someone on the same train or a baseball fan might share his photos with the rest of the stadium via a smartphone app. Merchants at a crowded shopping center might also blast out a coupon to everyone there.

Broadcom’s BCM4358 was selected to be included in the certification test bed for Wi-Fi Aware, among a suite of test-products from other industry-leading players.

The BCM4358 is a versatile product family, enabling all of the major functional blocks for an 802.11ac subsystem for smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, TVs, PC products and other consumer electronics with small size and low power requirements.

What that means for a new technology such as Wi-Fi Aware is that device manufacturers can now kick the tires on features that can enable “energy-efficient, proximity-based service discovery among Wi-Fi devices,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said.

The technology goes a ways toward a more personalized mobile experience by running continuously in the background and enabling a more organic route to on-the-go discovery of other devices, applications, and information nearby.

It’s a different approach than the “friend finders” and related apps that are a staple of today’s mobile phones, which require external wireless infrastructure to be in place wherever users roam. These features tap radio frequency (RF) beacon sensors or wireless access points, both of which require significant upfront costs to install and maintain.

“Wi-Fi Aware closes many of the gaps preventing other technologies from offering a rich experience where users can fully engage with the world around them,” said Clint W. Brown, director of product marketing at Broadcom. “Its ability to work well indoors and in dense environments, and to facilitate an efficient device-to-device or traditional Wi-Fi connection, will make Wi-Fi Aware well suited for a variety of applications and environments.”

Wi-Fi Aware is slated to do most of the heavy-lifting, without the need for more equipment.

“Wi-Fi Aware makes contextual awareness more immediate and useful, enabling personalized applications that continuously scan surroundings, anticipate actions, and notify of services and selected preferences,” the Alliance said on its website.

MEMS – or Micro electro-mechanical systems – are a very tiny component, literally. The low-power sensors are just a thousandth of an inch in size, and chances are you didn’t hear much about them in all of the news that came out of the annual International Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month.

Still, they’ve been called “the unsung heroes many of our favorite and beloved technologies” by the Mashable tech blog, which also acknowledged how MEMS are “particularly critical for smart home devices and the Internet of Things.”

Ah, the Internet of Things. Certainly you heard plenty about that at CES this year. After all, 2015 is already being heralded as “The Year of the Thing,” with vast projections for the number of connected devices ballooning to into the billions over the next five years.

That’s where tools like Broadcom’s WICED™ Sense™ development kit become mission critical to a new wave of developers. The kit, which went to market about six months ago, is outfitted with Broadcom’s WICED™ Smart low-power Bluetooth chip, the company’s Bluetooth 4.1-compatible WICED™ Smart software stack and, of course, MEMS sensors – a gyroscope, accelerometer, eCompass, as well as sensors that measure pressure, humidity and temperature.

The WICED™ Sense™ kit, which sells for $20, gives developers a low-cost, fast entry point into the world of IoT development, providing them with the tools they need to give everyday objects new utility by enabling them to connect to the Internet and each other. Broadcom’s Sid Shaw, director of product marketing for Bluetooth, shows the kit in the video below:

The development kit, which only takes only minutes to set up, gives software and hardware developers the ability to create fast prototypes in part because the software is already pre-programmed to pair the WICED™ Sense™ tag with a smartphone app so that the MEMS sensors can immediately start gathering critical data.

“In wearable devices and IoT applications such as smart homes, buildings, cities and vehicles, [MEMS] usually form a sensing cluster around the application processor, feeding it with every sensory change taking place,” Stephen Whalley, chief strategy officer at the MEMS Industry Grouptold EE Times earlier this month. “That data is then processed using algorithms to make sense of it so that humans or machines can react appropriately.”

At CES, considered to be the place where up-and-coming technologies take center stage, there was a dedicated conference track about MEMS that focused on low-power sensors for wearables and smart home devices. Uses for MEMS are expected to grow in the coming years, with market researcher IHS Inc. projecting the market for MEMS to grow to $214 million in 2018, up from up from $43 million in 2013.

Since its debut last summer, Broadcom’s WICED™ Sense™ development kit has landed in the hands of nearly 10,000 developers and hobbyists “who are doing really tremendous things with it,” Shaw said. “Imagine how much more useful connected gadgets can become when they can gather environmental data and make sense of it for us.”

LAS VEGAS — Near Field Communication (NFC), the “tap-to-activate” technology touted most often by its association with mobile payment systems, is starting to see a slow creep into other consumer applications, such as sharing contacts between mobile phones, sending print jobs to wireless printers or pairing a headset with a smartphone.

Broadcom’s Awad shows NFC use cases in the Broadcom Booth at CES 2015.

Broadcom, for its part, sees NFC as a key enabler a more personalized experience with the Internet of Things, especially for home automation and the connected car. Its chief application is easy device pairing: no more waiting for your smartphone or tablet to “discover” other connected devices around it.

“NFC is the next step to connect each of us to the Internet of Things devices all around us,” said Mohamed Awad, director of product marketing at Broadcom.

A driving force behind Internet of Things is the idea of connecting all the devices in a room into a single ecosystem. These devices would speak to one another and help create a customized experience for users of the devices.

NFC promises to streamline everyday tasks at home, Awad said. Imagine a day when setting down a smartphone on the bedside nightstand tells the room that you’re ready for bed, prompting the lights to dim, the TV to set its sleep timer and the device to being re-juicing.

“This would simplify and make customers’ lives just that much easier,” he said.

The same kind of convenience—and customization—is coming to the connected car.

Users of this technology would simply tap their mobile devices on the dashboard of their vehicles and, automatically, things like temperature, seat settings, mirror placement and music controls would be customized for that specific driver.

“When I sit in my wife’s car, I have to readjust the seats, my contacts are not readily available, and I have to setup my Google maps to where I want to go,” Awad said. “NFC would change the experience for the better.”

LAS VEGAS — As the International Consumer Electronics Show wraps up, there’s always some regret among attendees about what they may have missed. To help out those who might have missed Broadcom’s headlines, we dispatched a team of Blog Squadders to the Broadcom booth for a close-up look at some of this year’s top technologies.

Here’s what they found:

Wireless Charging Gets Real: It’s been a long time coming, but a universal wireless charging solution is closer than ever now that Broadcom’s standard-agnostic wireless charging chipset is on display. In the video below, Reinier van der Lee, director of product marketing, shows how Broadcom’s transceiver and receiver chips could work with a smartphone, tablet or wearable device.

Bluetooth Goes Big: Bluetooth, a longtime staple of headsets and stereos, is seeing new uses in some nifty toys. Featured at Broadcom’s booth was the Jamstik, a portable electric guitar for both pro musicians and amateurs that plays music via an iOS-enabled smartphones or tablet. Inside the Jamstik is Broadcom WICED™ Smart platform with Bluetooth connectivity, In this video, Chris Heille of Jamstik’s parent company Zivix, rocks out:

… And Also, Small: Also featuring WICED low-energy Bluetooth tech is the Nod Ring, a device that can act as an extremely versatile, gesture-based remote control for everything from changing the channel on a Smart TV to, as demonstrated in the video below, a controller for virtual reality gaming.

Drone Home: Broadcom partner Parrot showed off a menagerie of drones for hobbyists (some which flew, some which hopped, and other that appeared to have all-terrain abilities). They tap Broadcom’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology to enable users to control them with smartphones and tablets. Some of Parrot’s drones come equipped with cameras that can stream high-def video in real time during their wanderings, and Parrot Chief Technical Officer Guillaume Pinto explained that it is the strength of Broadcom’s 5G WiFi technology that allows that transmission to occur.

The final details are still being worked out but, whatever the outcome, Broadcom is ready.

“Customers with wireless charging do not have to worry about which standard they are using,” said Reinier van der Lee, director of product marketing at Broadcom.

“[With Broadcom’s wireless technology], mobile devices will work at any charging station.”

With Broadcom’s BCM59350 wireless charging solution, multiple devices – headsets, phones, tablets, smart watches, fitness monitors, and more – can be charged concurrently on any pad and at any position.

In the video embedded below, van der Lee demonstrates the technology in action, via a reference design, by placing a lamp on each standard’s charging pad, shifting it around to show how the connection is made and broken.

LAS VEGAS — Before I was hired to be part of Broadcom’s Blog Squad at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week, I hadn’t really given much thought to how much or how often an embedded semiconductor company touches our lives.

Home automation technology on display at the Broadcom booth at CES 2015.

I quickly discovered that Broadcom’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips and other connection wizardry reside in the mechanical closets of most of our gadgets. That includes phones, computers, set top boxes, game consoles, dongles — really any electronic device that wants to send and receive information—as well as the back-end networking equipment that transmits data to and from data centers.

I don’t care about the specs in my iPhone, Chromebook, Roku, or any other gadget I own. I just want their apps to work. For that to happen, I need a robust connection at home and work that’s smart enough to handle the growing number of concurrent users and devices all working together to clog the intertubes.

Earlier this week, Broadcom unveiled a suite of 5G WiFi-enabled router products designed to bring 802.11ac performance to the modern home Wi-Fi router or workhorse enterprise access points so that speedier, bandwidth-busting hubs can better serve every connected device.

Here are five reasons everyone should care about smarter, faster, wider-ranging and multi-user Wi-Fi:

1. It overcomes grainy video streams. I’m fortunate to have Google Fiber in my home. But the included 802.11n router is ill-suited for the task when several video streams or devices jump on the network. This is because old routers weren’t meant to handle the amount of devices we connect to them now. That, and they’re incapable of throttling older or distant devices that are hogging bandwidth, power, and signals as the access point attempts to maintain a connection with them. This is particularly troubling for video streams, one Broadcom engineer told me, which explains the lag I experience when my kids log on to Netflix while my wife and I use other Internet applications.

2. It supports multiple users. Because not all Web traffic is equal, the Internet can sometimes slow down, depending on the applications others are using on the network at the same time. “Wi-Fi is a lot like highway lanes,” Broadcom’s Ananda Roy, a wireless applications software engineer, told me this week. “5G WiFi widens those lanes and adds more of them so your newer devices don’t get stuck behind slow devices or in rush hour traffic.” I was unable to test the experience at home, but there’s no reason to believe the technology isn’t a significant improvement over my 802.11n router.

3. It plays nice with existing devices. Not only are 5G WiFi routers backward-compatible with older wireless devices, chances are, anything you’ve bought in the last three years already supports the standard. That means next-gen Wi-Fi is available today for less than it cost when it was released several years ago. Buying a new wireless router is anything but a status purchase, “but it improves the quality of experience of all the devices we love,” Roy said.

4. It has better range and wall throughput. That’s a fancy way of saying 5G WiFi offers better coverage and signal strength to the devices you connect, whether they’re in the corner room upstairs, the basement downstairs, or passing through concrete walls at the office. In short, 5G WiFi lets you do more with the internet you already have because it manages multiple devices better, while future-proofing your home or office network.

5. It downloads and transfers data 5x faster. Even though I get gigabit internet at home when wired in, I only get 200 mbps on wireless. First world problems, I know. But I’m paying for a Gig. Shouldn’t my router support it and all the glorious transfer speeds, downloads, and uploads that come with it? With 802.11ac Wave 2 routers, the answer is yes. And according to Broadcom’s Manny Patel, 5GWiFi performance is up to 40 percent faster than older variations of Wi-Fi.

Reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I’m Blake Snow. Thanks for reading. May all your connections be speedy this year.

LAS VEGAS — The folks back home, the ones who aren’t here for the tech-fest known as the International Consumer Electronics Show, are always eager to learn about the next big thing. And they rely on their Twitter feeds and favorite news outlets to give them the inside scoop.

That’s why a show like Pepcom’s Digital Experience, held the night before the official opening of CES, has become such a must-attend event – not only for the members of the press who will share breaking news with their audiences, but also for the companies who want to make sure that their products rise above all the noise.

Broadcom is no exception. Situated in the center of Grand Ballroom of the Mirage Hotel, Broadcom spent the evening not only talking about the power of its connectivity technologies but also opened its booth to some key partners so they could talk up their products to the steady flow of journalists..

A Nod to Nod Labs’ Ring

Consider Nod, a gesture-controlled ring that allows users to use hand motions and Bluetooth Low Energy for manipulating on-screen controls.

On display at CES: Look inside the Nod Ring, a WICED-enabled IoT device that uses Bluetooth and gestures to control other devices. The stainless-steel ring is packed with motion sensors, a Bluetooth 4.0 antenna, and a pair of processors.

Nod showed a virtual reality application with the Oculus Rift headset that allowed users to use the ring to break a virtual on-screen piñata.

It’s a fun way to show how the technology works, explained Nod Labs CEO Anush Elangovan, but the Nod’s Bluetooth chops can also take on more practical tasks, such as measuring a person’s physical therapy or strength training.

And then there’s the Jamstik, a sleek guitar-like device that doesn’t emit sound but instead uses Broadcom’s Bluetooth Low Energy technology to deliver an instantaneous signal from the Jamstik’s “strings” to an iOS mobile device to create music.

The connectivity technology itself is critical, said Chris Heille, music product specialist for Zivix, maker of the Jamstik. At the show, Heille offered a demo that showed how finger pressure on one of the Jamstik’s strings activates sensors that send signals to a mobile device — in a matter of milliseconds.

Jamstik and tablet: Taps Broadcom’s Bluetooth Low Energy technology to send signals from the musician’s fingertips to a mobile device.

And while those were only a couple of the products on demonstration at Broadcom’s booth, a number of partners, including Parrot and its high-flying drone that hovered over the crowd, showcased products that were powered by Broadcom technologies.

Toys and games aside, attendees also got to see connected devices that had practical uses. One such app was the Breathometer Breathalyzer, which instantly sends a reading to a smartphone, via an app, to not only record a person’s blood alcohol content but also lets the user know how long it will take for their levels to drop back to zero.

The International Consumer Electronics Show runs through Friday in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — The International Consumer Electronics Show is often dominated by the hottest devices and the biggest TVs – and rightfully so. After all, when was the last time anyone got excited about a new wireless router or latest Bluetooth widget?

(Not gonna lie. We get excited about that stuff at Broadcom.)

This year, however, the technologies that keep those hot devices and fancy TVs connected – to the Internet, to the network or to each other – is exactly what some insiders will be watching for at CES.

It’s not just tech enthusiasts who pay attention to CES. It’s a bellwether for the entire consumer electronics industry with some 160,000 attendees and thousands of new products announced (last year saw some 20,000 new product announcements over the four days of the show).

The show’s more than 3,500 exhibitors will take over Sin City, with millions of square feet of convention space packed with reporters, retail buyers, customers and analysts.

Broadcom, which will be showcasing in its own CES booth again this year, is expecting to see the connectivity theme at every turn in the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the Connected Home, Connected Health and Connected Cars will be in the spotlight. Even some of the other themes that are making a return visit, such as Ultra HD, have some connectivity themes as well.

For the home and office, Broadcom has announced a second wave of systems-on-a-chip for 5G WiFi routers, access points, and set-top boxes, which take advantage of the more robust 802.11ac technology to upgrade networking performance to gigabit speeds and brings multi-user support for transferring and streaming HD to multiple devices at once.

Think of it as multi-threaded, multi-channel Wi-Fi – and just in time. With smart devices being faster than ever before, isn’t it time that the Wi-Fi connections caught up?

In previous generations, the need for faster speeds fell on the devices themselves. (Remember when consumers were continually longing for faster computers?) Today, there’s been a shift as consumers look for greater broadband and stronger Wi-Fi so that more users and more devices can be supported at the same time, without the buffering.

That’s what Broadcom is delivering – and still, that’s only part of what the company is showcasing at CES.

Broadcom is also focused on technologies to advance connected healthcare, a category that the company considers to be the logical next step in the evolution of the Internet of Things. At the show, Broadcom will be exhibiting, with partners, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi-ready connected platforms to further drive down the costs of connected Internet of Things products.

When the Internet comes to a crawl, frustrated users are quick to question strength of their signals or the performance of their devices. But there’s something else that could be slowing the experience – and chances are that it’s not the broadband connection.

It’s the router.

Today’s routers have a greater task than routers of just five years ago. The modern day router has to serve many devices — old and new and with varying capabilities — on the same home or office wireless network.

In homes today, where consumer smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes and even appliances have joined the personal computer on the wireless network, the router tucked away in an upstairs closet is susceptible to slowdowns.

Today, at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Broadcom is unveiling a suite of 5G WiFi-enabled router products designed to bring 802.11ac performance to the modern home Wi-Fi router or workhorse enterprise access points so that speedier, bandwidth-busting hubs can better serve every connected device.

“Home and office networks have failed to keep up with the multi-device era,” said Sanjay Noronha, director of product marketing for wireless connectivity at Broadcom. “Broadcom is announcing two new 5G WiFi access point solutions that will deliver the industry’s fastest Wi-Fi performance and extend 802.11ac performance to mainstream users.”

Broadcom’s second-wave 5G WiFi routers, switches, and gateways support the latest 802.11ac standards, as well as older Wi-Fi standards 802.11a/b/n, and come in four varieties:

With the announcement of new Broadcom 5G WiFi access points, home and office users get considerable performance gains over previous wireless Wi-Fi standards, Noronha said.

“It’s like buying a car that’s 20 times faster and driving it on highways that are four times wider,” he said.

Click on the image to see how MIMO antenna technology improves users’ Wi-Fi experience

In other words, the technology transforms wireless networks into smart ones, smart enough to support increasing numbers of devices, massively improve download speeds, and extend the range and radio penetration.

Broadcom’s 5G WiFi also improves the battery life of mobile devices, as each device spends substantially less time transferring and syncing data, making the gear far more power efficient than competing wireless chips.

For instance, large file transfers happen in seconds now, not minutes. HDMI dongles no longer require an auxiliary power cord since Broadcom 5G WiFi cuts energy consumption in half. And streaming video zips through the network, even with multiple, simultaneous users.

The added performance comes from combining 5G WiFi with multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output antenna (or MU-MIMO) technology, which enhances networking speeds by enabling routers to simultaneously communicate with multiple devices. Older routers, by contrast, only communicated with one device at a time.

MIMO (pronounced My-Mo) uses two, four, or six antennas to transmit and receive two, four, or six streams of data in parallel, boosting throughput and wireless range.

And because these chips tap 5G WiFi, end users get the benefits of beamforming—which dynamically senses the environment for transmitting Wi-Fi signals and boosts them to the targeted device. This is done through a handshaking protocol that allows the device and router to communicate about where to send the signal, all in the background.

All of these capabilities come just in time for 802.11ac client devices (think: smartphones and tablets) to hit the mainstream. In 2014, 802.11ac wireless is expected to make up nearly 60 percent of consumer shipments, according to ABI Research.

The takeaway message for consumers is simple: If you’re planning on upgrading to a device that has the latest and greatest Wi-Fi technologies inside, you should also consider an upgrade to the network, Noronha said.

“A lot of people forget how all this great content gets on our screens,” he said. “In the home and office, it’s mostly over Wi-Fi. At Broadcom, our job is to make that experience better: faster, more accessible, more reliable, and more affordable for a growing number of concurrent users.”